e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e go e e would you okay to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance please all right good evening and welcome to the uh MBO school committee meeting for Wednesday the May 22nd um student Spotlight col Dy how are you buddy uh thank you guys all for having me here uh so back starting with the Mech uh Mech is slowing things down with plenty of events like the barn be presentation they had the other day as well as uh their field trip to the Bunn Zoo Mech also is starting their pajama pajama party musicals this week as as well as other events uh the hbb will have their field day June 11th as well as their band orchestra concert on May 28th other events include fifth grader events like the fifth grade future Fair as well as an ice cream social fi the memory slideshow kickball tournament on the 7th of June uh the mkg uh as well as HB they will be having their um their career fair uh that's on May 23rd at 6 PM in the hbb gym uh as well as the mkg gr fifth graders will have their final assessments next week and the spring uh instrument concert will be held uh also May 28th 5 to 7 P.M in the High School auditorium right here um at the Middle School uh spring happened last weekend it went great with many students having the honor to act and contribute to the production uh the orchestra and band concert will be held on June 3rd along with field day for Middle School being on June 13th also after school after school clubs are going to be coming to an end with their last uh GSA meeting happening on June 10th uh over at the high school uh as a senior definitely feels like the end is completely over with my last day meeting today uh but there is a senior barbecue meeting tomorrow and Senior last is next Thursday and Senior memory night is next Friday uh spring Sports have not taken a stop at all with softball I know playing very well and Lacrosse winning a game today on the road 13-2 against New Bedford uh the student council had their last meeting in their banquet last night and it went great people won awards it it was great outing uh as well as nomination papers for student class boards were released on Monday are in the office all week and the class 2024's graduation is Saturday June 1st out in the field thank you guys I appreciate it thank you for the great year thank you yes this one was actually about you Colin not for you to talk but thank you as usual for the lovely updates all year um so because you're here and we can make you uh what are your plans for September August or whenever it starts uh I plan going to University Island and plan on majoring in Ocean engineering wonderful so uh we as a school committee and the superintendent past and present wanted to just acknowledge your work for um the school committee this year um and you know thanks to a lovely thing called Instagram I knew where you were going um so the committee um is going to uh present you with a wonderful congratulations card and um as soon as they arrive in the mail uh some gift cards to your URI bookstore we'll be coming your way I'll find you at some senior event in the next week and a half and get those to you so we want to wish you the best of luck on your next Endeavors and hopefully you uh found something beneficial out of being forced to speak in public in front of everybody and on camera for the past year that you can use in your future endeavors so congratulations thank you I appreciate you [Applause] guys I did that the wrong way way I'll have to practice for week and a half my younger brother graduated from URI and uh he's done very very well for himself so he got a little surfing in while he was down there as well so enjoy it thank you um all right uh public comment does anybody on the board have anything from under public comment anyone in the audience have anything under public comment all right discussion items report reports from school committee members I got my shout out so let's see um just to reiterate a couple things um first of all for anyone in 10th Grade who completed your mcast today congratulations to all of those students hopefully it is the last mcast for many of them and they have put that phase of their education behind them um Tuesday May 20 8 from 5:15 to 7: right here in this Auditorium the Elementary music students will be putting on their Spring Concert so um for those of you who per chance got a preview of that at the second annual Danny Dugen Festival last Saturday you can come and hear some more uh music by those wonderful students um take the opportunity to to thank everyone who is part of that Arts Festival as well um I don't think the cameras can get there but we still have some wonderful art pieces um in the auditorium here and I know it was just a lovely event and appreciated by everyone and thanks to all the students who volunteered and all of the Arts Department's teachers who helped put it together um couple other things um at the high school spring music concert on last week I think it was only last week um we were're able to induct some new members of the trim Honor Society so Middleboro now has two Arts based um Honor Society so the music one we were able to induct a number of students there um and we also this year had the first class of the international thesbian Society during the academic honors night so it's wonderful to have those additional um honor societies available to the students in the high school um and our first class of inductees were 28 members of the Junior and senior class so congratulations to all of those students um and then one other um recognition to just make is um there was a um an emergency at the elementary complex in terms of not having lighting for uh all of the plays and the events that they had in the auditorium there um so we had not only our um wonderful mix moer who is here tonight who uh helped get things over there um but there were a number of students who participated and helped get that setup put up and taken down so um just another example of our performing art students working together and helping each other out to make sure that cross District we have what we need um to make those things happen so thank you to everyone for sharing in the uh the work that goes into all of us being able to enjoy those types of events so thank you thank you Jess anyone else just mention real quick I saw one hell a uh girls softball game at uh Bridgewater yesterday it was Nichols Middle School against Bridgewater I think it was 15 to 16 it was uh in Extra Innings so it was right down to the last last pitch it was uh beautiful day great day to watch some sports and if you get a chance get out there and watch any team we have has pretty good success so enjoy uh with that any reports from mea co-presidents no superintendent report thank you Mr chair um tonight we have three items we're going to be covering and the first one are the school Improvement plan wrapup from this year and preview into next year our principles will be back in the fall to give a more full um recitation of the 2425 School Improvement plan so with that we'll go in reverse order this evening and we'll begin with Principal Paul Branan at middleb High School good evening I think it's on now it's on um first congratulations to Colin for all of his work as in this role and his leadership at the high school so um just thank you for that I'm really excited to be able to share with you um just highlights of this year's School Improvement plan and the work that the high school has done and to also give you just a little bit of a of a view of what's to come in our school Improvement plan for 2425 you just notice in this front slide just a special thanks to many of the parents and and faculty and students that have been part of the school council for this year it's a dynamic group and it also is a wonderful voice around the table about helping the high school be better um we had five goals this year and I want to just take you really quickly through really the highlights of really what our focuses have been the first goal was really looking at our instructional practices which is really something that is an ongoing item for us because we really wanted to make sure the fact that we could be looking at how do we take our students and take them to the next level so really one of the things we're looking at is updating all of our curriculum and pacing Guides Through the work of our curriculum team in the ability for us to make sure that no matter where we are in the structure of the curriculum renewal plans for the for the high school the fact that we were always on point and especially with going into the new schedule that a lot of the pacing guides that we were using under the block schedule needed to be modified and changed to just make sure the fact that we were meeting the needs so that was a huge goal for us and also really reviewing and the analysis of Engagement and assessment practices what I mean by engagement is really what are we seeing in the classroom in terms of really how are our instructional practices meeting the needs of students um and also how are they engaging back with the with the teacher um and that is something that has been an ongoing conversation with us at the high school and that really the work we've been doing of taking the true the true and tried tools that was always at a teacher ready for them sometimes those tools aren't as sharp anymore and especially with coming out of a pandemic that it was something we needed to be really looking at do we need to be creating new tools and new strategies and that was really part of that but then also the assessment practices as well of looking at really the the online assessments that we were using such as Edge elastic but at the same aset time going back and looking at what is a formative assessment and a summative assessment and just really making sure we're kind of aligning to where our students are the onetoone initiative and really finding a balance has been a lot of analysis is year of looking at really the amount of time that students are on their devices and really where do you strike the balance between really being in the you know the 24 years in but the 21st century world of really where everything is so electronic but then at the same exact time really getting that back to the poster paper and the markers and the crayons and and really that kind of Cooperative learning experience and really what does that look like but also with Google Classroom as well and really how does that how are we engage in that are there similarities between staff in terms of how they use it so that is an area we looked at as well and then Al our data informed analysis and decision- making through the accountability plan which is a work in progress which is a yearly goal for us it's written in the spring to be able to have it launch in the fall so that we're working on those goals of what we're holding ourselves accountable to which is a different document than what the school Improvement plan is our school culture um we this is something that we put a lot of energy into this year and that really from all different angles um our advisory program through the new schedule we were able to bring in 18 advisory sessions for our students some were wildly successful some were not but the one thing that came out of it that was really a goal for us is the myap program that is our partnership with desie which is really my um College and Career my college um and academic plan and in career plan and that really what it's looking at is is helping students beginning in 9th grade to really begin to map out really where their career could be taking them and how do we help get them there there was about 12 advisories that were really geared towards that curriculum that School counseling had written over the summer um and then of course the launch of the vision of The Graduate um one area that had been an area of concern through school council and it was something that we have really put a lot of energy into this year is really about looking at transition from middle school to high school um through really working with Dr Tucker and with her school counselors especially Meg Mari Ari at the middle school is really looking at really what are the trends were seen why are students applying to go to other schools and what is the rationale behind it but then really on top of that how intentional are we being with our transition to the high school Beyond start strong and when are we beginning that process and so already now for the class of 28 that's getting ready to begin their transition we already have some systems that we going to start to launch in the fall of really helping them really transition into the high school but also how are we attaching ourselves to the class of 29 um level of Engagement sense of belonging um really through our activities our 3as activities Athletics in the Arts is really what is that level of Engagement are we seeing students being involved in activities after school are they coming to events and really what are where are the trends taking us but also that sense of belonging um and that really comes from a lot of our Panorama data of really helping the the screeners that we've been doing with our students to get a sense of really where do they fit in our school community and where potentially the entry points go with that we've hosted did two Weld and strong programs this year um one in the winter right in the beginning of January and we just held one a week ago um as we got ready for AP testing and and mcast and all of that it is really about creating strategies for students to be able to handle stress we had a wonderful celebration of um of of um therapy dogs come into the building as well and and really um be able to work with our students and a thanks to our school adjustment counselors for doing that our tied intervention systems really ensuring the strategies we're engaging in the classroom of supporting students within the classroom but also outside of the classroom and then lastly to the thanks of Mr Justin pittsley really the launch of the Strategic plan for Fine Arts how are we revitalizing it where are the entry points and what are the needs with that as well and that has really been something that has been shephered by by Justin in particular um our future ready program I bring up the myap again because it's really about how to students see themselves in their own future and this is really the beginnings this Future Ready initiative as you know a year ago we came to through the good work of Tony Cy of our Innovative Pathways and Manufacturing this became really the launch it's the building of the capacity of that we'll be offering two courses next year out of the my lab of an introduction to The Innovation event of manufacturing but then on top of that we've Now set the stage because of this Innovative Pathway to the beginnings of actually creating more Innovative Pathways for students that they' be able to see different entry points as well but also starting with the class of 2025 a real review of our senior internship program instead of having the students meet our needs of what we can provide to them why aren't we finding out ahead of time where they want to go and why aren't we the ones creating the entry points and the pathways for them so back in the winter months we created an entire structure for the rising Juniors to begin the forecasting of where they think they want to be and then our job really helping them find the the niche of that we're also launching this year really a work study program where for students that really have met all the requirements who are not intending to go on to a 4year school the fact that they may be able to spend a good chunk of their day in an actual placement earning credentials in an apprenticeship or something like that and it's all part of really finding the way for these students to be able to get their own entry point so they're ready when they leave here to be future ready and then lastly our vision of The Graduate um we really we excited by this work this year through the team that created and the launch point of our vision of the graduate which now will become really our Guiding Light for everything that we do um will now go into year two which is really more of the next stage of the implementation but to be able to actually share the vision of The Graduate for our students to see it and to then embrace it as well was really quite important to us we completed the nas collabor collaborative conference which I came to with the findings of that and of course the updated mission and vision of the high school that came out of the work of the vision of The Graduate and really the last goal which we're really proud of is the new schedule as albe it it has moments of wonkiness and it has minute moments of challenge it was incredibly Progressive and it was something that we have not even been able to tackle in 25 years so the fact that we did it and we've been able to create a very different looking schedule for our students that's much more appropriate than what we were doing was huge for us um we spent the entire year reflecting on the effectiveness with the data points in um asking Stak holders in getting the information to say what is working what isn't um that feedback is allowed for us to build the schedule that you all have seen in draft form for next year we were able to take the best of this current year and now implement it for next year and really this whole concept of the success block of really putting students in the driver's seat to allow for them to become the V the driver of their own learning and for them to make decisions of really where they see their learning going during very structured times of the day this year was the um experiment year and now next year with the structures we have in place they'll have two days in every week where they will have a 40-minute period of time where they will choose where they need to go in the building and who they need to meet with for extra help and support and um and the feedback we got from students was that they really like that opportunity to have that um that opportunity to really Drive their own learning in that front and so lastly where are we going a lot of the goals that you see are really similar SAR to what I just shared and it's because it's really now the next chapter of really our work the instructional practices that you see there there's four there's words in here that are really important for me I think as a as the principal but also really where we want to go with our school it's really looking at riger and really looking at what that means to our students at this time looking at engagement and the next phase of that collectively as a school community and then really looking at strategies for success what things do we need to get into teachers hands to allow for them to be able to see the fruit of their labor but then also what are the strategies we need to be able to be giving to students that are going to be relevant for them goal number two is going to be really an important goal for us of looking at professional learning communities we're going to be revamping how we do our monthly meetings with our faculty in creating rail opportunities to create professional learning communities not only within content areas but to be able to mix content areas together to be look at um Trends look at assessment look at curricular opportunity that they can do as well taking our school to the next level of the Future Ready program and the goal here is to make sure it's embedded in every classroom to have a future ready goal in every lesson that a teacher will engage their students with it's collaboration it's communication it's critical thinking and then lastly we have a year to prepare for Nas as they will be back in October of 25 and so it'll be a lot of work working on the goals for that and lastly I came to you and said there was a goal that Nas thought we did wonderful in but we felt we needed more work on and that last goal is really the school culture piece we're taking the success that we saw this year building from that but more importantly looking at the peer-to-peer engagement and strengthening those programs around it to make sure that all students have a sense um that they belong here so I can take any questions if there are any but that's kind of the forecast that we see for next year any questions comments so um and again forgive me you know being um an newbie um uh it's a question I had from the last time that I've watched from out there uh the school Improvement plans being presented first of all incredibly impressive the areas the uh types of strategies in the different categories of the goals um all areas that um I think are ones that will strengthen the fabric um of the culture of the high school and so um kudos uh and is reflected in the report that you got from thees of how that's been consistent and and kudos to that my question is is around assessment uh of the goals um and in the beginning you said that um that's really kept in a a different document uh I'd be interested at some point to see how it is that you're assessing these goals uh what kind of metrics that you're using and then what were you hoping to achieve and then you know how far did we how close did we come to getting that and as always it's only a way to then for the next year to figure out what you want to do different or how we want to build upon that so uh I was interested to hear a little bit more about the assessment of the goals yeah so we use a lot of different metrics so for example when we're looking at assessment strategies we're looking at really what common assessments are being used and how are they being used so a common assess could be a bank of questions that still gives the teacher the autonomy of creating an any assessment they would like but there's a small Bank of questions that become Universal for everybody but there's also assessments that are souped To Nuts beginning to end everybody in the same class everyone in the same grade would be doing the same assessment that data is going to be very different and so it's really about calculating or or really calibrating really what those assessments actually look like what are we assessing are we assessing for skill are we assessing for content and I think really it's really the blending of that because all of our content areas are working at assessment strategies so I think part of it is is the data we're getting from those assessments are really helping us drive what are we seeing in instruction in particular but then also um looking at things like grades so we're looking at really what are we seeing especially with this new schedule we want to look at trends that we were seeing are you seeing higher grades are you seeing lower grades and then to be able to do the dive with the leadership team to say well what is this looking like um and what do does that tell us in terms of really is it first term that we saw increase of maybe lower grades or do we see a transcend that it was through the entire year is it focused on really what we're looking at in grade nine students in particular which historically always tends to have more of a struggle in that first semester of high school because they're getting used to high school so I hope that kind of answers a little bit of that question on more the micro level I was actually thinking about the Improvement plan itself so you have these five goals and you you must have set your sights on this is where we want to be in this goal and how it is and not something that you need to answer me right now but it is information I'd be interested in is how you're assessing whether we've made Improvement within that goal other than through observation but it are there metrics that we're using student engagement are we looking at retention rates to graduation are we look and did we move that along is are we looking at it' just be interesting to me to see how we see we are moving forward with these Improvement plans and achieving what it is that we would want to achieve thank you we will do that and is that in a separate Doc is that a separate document it's not really I I know I referen the accountability plan and it's really that plan is a very different document for us because a school Improvement plan it may you may transcend year-to-year with right so the goals may be the next chapter of that in an accountability plan at least what we have done historically is that accountability plan is one year and some that will come out of actually what the goals are of the school Improvement plan but it's very hyperfocused work of what we're holding ourselves accountable for to see growth and achievement in the following year and so that is something that the leadership team has been working on we have to pause because of just really we wanted to make sure we were calibrating appropriately with the district Improvement plan as well and so the goal is to have that done for the fall so that way there that the whole faculty can go and do that and that's one of the metrics that actually help helps us with the school Improvement plan thank you you're welcome thank you any other questions thank you very much thank you everyone thank you I'd like to introduce Dr Tucker yes so we'll move on to the Nichols Middle School and while Dr Tucker is getting set up I'll just uh to kind of give you some information about data collection you know this team um every day is taking steps to making a concerted effort to make database decisions so the onboarding of our platform Panorama is one way that you would measure how do you measure something like student engagement there's a uh Panorama so one of the ways that I mean you could use observational data I could walk into a classroom does that child look engaged um but the Panorama platform and the magic of that is actually surveying students and asking them if they're feeling connected to that material so a platform like Panorama provides a really great metric for measuring some of these harder to measure I mean there's certainly attendance data um and hard metrics like you know assessment data but when you're getting into um engagement and rigor you really have to look into student perception and how they're feeling about their studies so that's something that principal bran and I have been working on along with the rest of the leadership team but I'm sure you'll hear more about that in subsequent presentations so with that Dr Tucker uh why don't you talk to us about school Improvement at the Nichols Middle School thank you very much for having me today um so for the Nicholls um School Improvement plan one of the things um I am excited about this year was there seemed to be a great bit of interest um new school committee member um I just started March as a sub last year so July 1 is my actual Sorry Miss Panini okay um so um really I'm a July 1 start I at least have a little bit of that extra background from my substitute time um so I had a great Advantage I think coming into this school year just a little bit um and so I actually wanted to increase the amount of parents and and participants in our school council so I'm really excited that we actually added one more teacher and one more parent to our school council so it's actually quite a robust and I really appreciate it and I'm so thankful for the feedback that they gave questions that my council members asked feedback that they brought back from the community it's really helpful to think about all of those parts in pieces um one of the things that it's important and I wanted to do an overall highlight of um the nichels school Improvement plan because I think it's important when we look at this the Nickels one of my goals here is this year was to provide overall structures and Frameworks for us to Anchor the work that we did this year I think it was really important that we developed some more systems to actually support the work we wanted to do moving forward so for me one of our big parts and pieces were to look at structures so one of the things I did this year was I res re revised the structure in format of our faculty meetings and I wanted our faculty meetings actually be an opportunity for professional development so as we were using this not for nuts and bolts I created a Monday memo so I put a lot of um it started as like if it could be any it should be I don't know it had a crazy name and I moved it to Monday memo and something like that because I wanted that time that we had as faculty to actually be digging into our practices to be able to go the multi-tiered system of support so we really understood what that common language is what did that look like and a framework of a common understanding to kind of unify us as we move forward the other thing I did this year was to create I took three faculty meetings and I created subcommittees and in that we have what's called win so if you haven't heard about students what I need your response to intervention block as part of the mtss we had a win subcommittee a discipline and handbook subcommittee and a greeing and report card so the faculty divided into three groups led by myself and the two assistant principles who actually dug into what are our practices what have they been what are we seeing what do we need and just getting kind of a base framework of understanding of what has been happening historically at the Nickels so we have an idea of how to Target our work moving forward um again we restructured this intervention block and we started with writing instruction for everybody because our data has shown that Nicholls um and actually I think it's actually probably across the Commonwealth writing is you know the most challenging skill and something that we needed to be able to address so we were able to do that and then we were also able to actually do some remediation of lagging skills for certain groups of students um we had uh the positive behavior intervention system initiatives to to but we really expanded those this year so we had had tiger stripes before we had had Roar Awards but we um the PBIS committee worked with groups of students creating lunch Legends to um on Fridays it's really fun to have the microphone in the cafeteria and hold a five doll gift card to papaginos to see who's going to get it um we also created some Roar assemblies which were student expectations how should we act in school what does that look like what does that mean and then trimester Awards to really acknowledge students for the hard work that they're doing so that was new this school year and then the other thing is expanded opportunities for students so I'll speak more about this but the Mark is the Massachusetts aggression reduction Center through brid Bridgewater State College which really is an antibullying based program and we had students for that um building off of the uh 351 project 351 Ambassador The Next Step was to do Playbook initiative so we had another group of students participate in that we had different skill groups for students so those are really big highlights which really anchor the work of our goals so our first goal really looked at student achievement and how are we measuring that and so when I I look at this um goal we really thought a lot about how we were developing that common understanding of mtss and how do we use that leveled understanding to look at our wind structures and how do we develop those and what does that look like in our schedule we um had a new building schedule this year which um was definitely great for so many reasons again not everything was out like with small lumps and bumps but it's an evolution and sometimes you have to get into it before you know all of the great strengths but the creation of the Wind Block in doing that was really phenomenal and I think the other thing that really stood out for me this year was the way in which our counseling department as one of the pieces of multi-tiered system of supports our counseling um Department actually presented at a faculty meeting and these are the different ways in which we support students they used panin data to look at what do different social skills groups that thing that students need and really the um the way that we were able to focus on writing every student um in our five day cycle for the five days spent 30 minutes targeted focused on writing which is great it'll be interesting to see we haven't finished um right now the students are doing their um writing benchmark assessments they're doing the star 360 um final assessment so I don't have that data yet but I actually appreciate the data question um because I also very much like data um so when we're really looking at how are we increasing student achievement we want to look at student achievement and the student as a holistic person not you know of course we looked at the star 360 math and Ela data we were able to um actually dig even deeper into that wi time for students that may have had a lagging skill and teachers were able to say okay I'm going to take you know I have this small group of students we're going to use a little direct instruction we're going to use ISL as a practice practice to be able to say okay you're missing um combining like terms so how are you able to go back to that piece of that algebraic get that extra practice um it is anecdotal because we're not there yet but in our wi groups uh you know teachers are reporting they're actually seeing an increase in students reading skills they're seeing an increase in students math skills by doing these targeted inent interventions we use the Panorama data to look at what do some individualized students need what do they need with you know not just a generalized counseling check-in but what are those direct skills that that student may need um the the guidance Suite is a hot button of activity between the different lunches a lot of the time that's when students are doing their um directed skill groups and the skill groups could have been around self-confidence anxiety communication um you know um how to sort of strengthen their voice um just something to note from Spring of 23 to fall of 24 our percent of students who participated in the panoram data collection excluding those who um you know opted for the opt out we had an increase in students with that so I'm expecting again another high level of participation which really lets us know how students are doing and it it'll be interesting to measure the fall versus the spring but it's being delivered right now um we really increased our student leadership we found ways to give students more of a voice in the school so we took um 18 students actually it goes to the next school I mean the next um goal as well is creating that sense of belonging um we had um 18 students that we took to the mark to Bridgewater Street to be trained as these anti-bullying leaders we had 30 students were um who are participating in Playbook initiative we had one of the Ambassador 351 we took 12 to 15 students to be in the know and we worked really hard to have very little overlap in students so just looking at those numbers we increased our student leadership by like 60 students in our building to be able to learn how to advocate for others how to um you know work through vignettes of how to be strong in voice and how to help others um you know be kind and um those other parts and pieces um in our Roar assemblies so on half days myself or one of the assistant principes we pulled the students in by grade level and we talked about what does it look like to be a student in the sixth grade what are these expected behaviors what does that mean what does it look like in the cafeteria what does it look like in the hallway what does it look like you know in your PE and academic classes um we um created at these trimester Awards So what had been happening last year is once a month students would be notified by their cluster that they were exemplifying you know student behaviors it's not the highest achieving academic but what is great in character and as we were looking at students to find more ways to celebrate all of the good things that students did we created content Superstars so it does not mean that you had the highest grade in science but you showed a passion you showed a drive you showed an initiative so we acknowledge students for that are Unified Arts teachers um also identified students that excelled in either art or technical writing or health class those other pieces that make the components of a a well-rounded student um one of the things about the trimester Awards is we had so many students win awards that if we actually brought all of the high honor students into that award ceremony there'd be no space for parents literally no space for parents which is actually a good problem to have so we actually um we acknowledged all of the students that got High honors in the tiger times and um you know we had the lunch Legend winners that if we missed a Friday you know Dr Tucker who's getting the papaginos today who's getting the Dairy Queen kids were seeking that teachers would come in they'd issue lunch Legend slips and we got to talk about you know um you know Colin got a slip because he you know demonstrated this type of behavior in the cafeteria um so we really looked to continue to what that looks like and then we also had a wide range of Student Activities so there was a little bit of something for everybody Athletics intramurals which are less competitive There Was You Know volleyball where students are just learning the basics and Beginnings we had chess club Art Club GSA Builder club and then we put on two performances which were spectacular um you know for The Wizard of Oz and just did Alice in Wonderland and we had students that actually ran the lights and did the crew and the sets and it just was amazing to have you know 60 kids participate in such a large performance and they did a beautiful job so we're looking at how we're creating that cultivation of sense of belonging to give there something for everybody um my last goal is about meaningful pay family and Community Partnerships and I truly appreciate the way that the PTA has given feedback the way that the school council parents have provided feedback um one of the things I started tracking and looking at is when I send out my tiger times newsletter it goes to approximately um 710 students in the school two email addresses 1420 another 100 staff so it's about 152 people we're getting about 400 to 500 average readers of the tiger times the class tags are getting about you know um, 1550 to 1580 so we're getting about a 33% um reader response for the class tags and tiger times is getting about a 26% response but what's really interesting about that data is it's a little lengthy tiger times because students in Middle School don't come home and tell their parents things because they're in Middle School um the average read time of the tiger times is seven minutes which means the people who are accessing that information are taking time to read it and absorb it which is great um you know we increased the number of school council members I think the PTA said they had a record amount of parents and staff sign up to be PTA members um this year we did did our open house it was a traditional open house um but I also did um I did a open parent Forum in January um we had our trimester award so trying to find ways that parents can come in and access the building so lastly just where we're going next um we're going to continue that subcommittee work people felt like there's still work to be done and want to actually dig in and drill deeper um really looking at our our professional learning communities and looking for greater alignment across the grades in the Departments particularly around the tier one and tier 2 instruction and intervention um our PC reallocating sort of the time that we have to be able to have a full grade level PLC to be able to do different cluster plc's than to be able to do sixth grade science or sixth grade math in providing more opportunities for people to work together to calibrate which is an alignment with the district plan of that vertical articulation and making those cross connections um um we are looking Digger to dig deeper into our data analysis and using data protocols and systems within those plc's to analyze how students are doing which will also Drive our win instruction for better student outcomes um the PBIS uh Educators came back and said okay now that we've got these kids trained what's next we want to start a mentorship program and what does that look like and what does it do and they're they've they've got a proposal for me to say how do we take this to the next step how do we take those leaders and bring them forward and then how do we develop the leaders of the new students coming through um and really looking to increase those War assembly messages dig deeper into the classroom spread that out to families um and then lastly to make sure that um some of the feedback I got through PTA is helping parents to understand what are some of those lower level behaviors that are impacting the culture of the Nickels what are those social I call them social Tangles those social conflicts those things that are sort of inherent to middle school but have a fine line before they become that next escalated incident and what do consequences look like for those things how are you matching those lower level behaviors to our infractions to potential consequences and helping parents to understand that so I know the assistant principles are working on that handbook revision to hopefully provide some of that greater Clarity to um families and I think that's all any questions anyone have any questions first I went to Alice in Wonderland and it was wonderful and it was wonderful to see the number of of people in the audience uh also they did a great job and the number of people in the audience which again is that engagement uh with the community that's so good um a question I have is I I may have Miss remember but I thought I remembered that you had instituted a restorative justice um disciplinary program at the school is that true so we it is a piece that we are so there are actually a couple of things that we are um looking at one of the things that we have um created for students is I decide and I decide is actually a curriculum for students who are engaging in some high-risk some potential behaviors that may be looking more to uh substance AB use things like that and we actually had four uh a school adjustment counselor uh the health teacher the school psychologist and another teacher and so we have students that are going through the eye decide program for example if you find St a student that has a vape on them we may be going through that or student that's engaging in that it's a four session program we work with families on the days we have leap bu so those are some of those that's a new restorative program that we have not had before that we're looking to do with students in we are looking at ways in which we are engaging students other than just a heavy-handed consequence what is it that you give back um super fan of writing thank of apology notes and writing notes home that or students writing apology notes that parents have to sign to say like I understand here's here's what happened here's what I need to do next time and and taking some ownership for that thank you you're welcome anyone else have any other question questions thank you very much Dr Tucker thank you Colin get out of here thank you with that we will turn to the elementary schools and we'll begin with the Henry B Berkland Elementary School with uh principal Thompson uh to present out on the wrapup of the school Improvement plan welcome principal Thompson thank you and Colin good luck next year make me feel old sitting here um all right so I'd like to start by just thanking my school counil I was very fortunate this year to have in the last couple years I have as well had a had a great school counsel and a lot of Rich conversation um and just a great team committed to just moving the school forward so just my um appreciation to the committee um that joined me this year um at hbb we did things a little bit differently with our plan going into this year I no we've been talking a little bit about assessment um typically our plan our whole process starts off with looking at assessment data and then coming up with goals we didn't change that process but our typical plan would be to like improve in literacy because we realize certain things are struggling there improve in math and then the structures that we're trying to apply in the building were all weaved throughout that plan and and one of the pieces of data that we look at pretty extensively is survey data we survey students parents and um teachers all using a similar survey and one of the things we had realized was there was a lot of confusion around the assessments that we were using at the elementary level we have a lot of data um and I think there was a little bit of confusion around what we use different data points for when do we use it and what does what drives it so we structured our plan a little bit differently uh this year and it's worked out pretty well where we essentially started off with the structure and the assessments that drive those um goals so the first goal is really about mtss which is this is something we've been um doing for a number of years here which is really about making sure that each individual student in the school is on a path of growth and that we're paying attention to that so the assessments that we use for that one of the biggest ones is star 360 we administer that three times a year we have procedures set up all throughout the building to make sure teacher teams are looking at that and that interventions are being provided and again that's all about individual students that are struggling so this year um we did a number of things to make sure that we just streamlined that process because that can get muddy we're talking about a lot of kids in the building um we don't want any of the kids to fall through the crack so we um did some changes to how we structured the meetings when we had them how we scheduled them who shared them what pap work we use to make sure that we have followup um when we say we're going to do something do we follow up in six weeks and all of that so that's worked out pretty well for us um and we also have done a lot of work to make sure that our tier 2 interventions were a little tightened up um which has been helpful with some of the additional programs that we brought in like Lexia and youly um and that's also stemmed over into our interventionists one of the things that's been nice this year is our interventions have been a little bit more aligned with what's happening in the classroom so that's been a nice Improvement this year our second goal is about curriculum level data which is really a lot of what mcass is um so this is when a group of teachers are getting together and they're not just talking about the individual students but you know how did our kids do collectively and what gaps might there be within our curriculum that we need to address um so a lot of this work has been LED through our curriculum office but uh this year a lot of the work has been a really one of the biggest things has been unpacking the standards in literacy and math and going back and I know that was impactful on my building we have a lot of new staff so really going deeply and making sure the teachers understand where it is we're trying to get kids by the end of every grade level um but we have a lot of things going on there's some we've just it's been implementation like youly which has been great early bird um but others where we're continuing to develop curriculum and looking at like a new writing program and empowering writers which is something that's going to be implemented next year um and the other piece that we've been doing a lot Mrs White and myself along with the curriculum offices aligning our PLC meetings where the te all the teachers in grade five from both buildings are meeting at the same time with the curriculum office to go over some of the curriculum work to ensure that kids have a consistent experience regardless of what classroom they're in across the complex our third goal is about each individual teacher um we have a number of Assessments in the building that we say Drive their instruction so the Bas would be one of those that's a The Benchmark assessment system where it's a reading assessment that we give to kids but that assessment is really meant to inform the teachers instruction so they know what to plan for we talk a lot about small group instruction at the elementary level and when they pull kids into those groups who are you planning for what is it that you're going to do what books are you going to use um so that's what this third goal has been about this year a big part of our work to improve improve um teacher practice in addition to the professional development that we've had planned throughout the year has been we did a number um we planned grade level walkthroughs where we really worked with teams at the team level to get them to a place where they were getting a little bit more comfortable observing each other so every teacher in the building had an opportunity to observe one another um and that work was led through our coaches um and just beginning to give each other feedback and the subtlety of practice those walkthroughs focused on student engagement and impact so we worked with the teachers to you know you you you B basically have to teach them how to observe another teacher classroom because they might not notice what you're hoping they notice which we want them to try to see the world through the eyes of the kids and look at that engagement level and look at the moves the teachers are doing and give them feedback like I noticed you did this it worked I noticed you did this and some of the kids seem to put their pens down or put their heads down weren't paying attention and trying to really Foster a culture where teachers are giving each other that feedback um and then the other thing we did that was a little bit different this year because in years past we had a number of professional development sessions that we were building for all teachers to run through that were in addition to our PD days this year we really spent a lot of time with the coaches in my building using data and determining who needed what um and really targeting their work with individual teachers and then our last goal um is about fostering relationships with families and developing that true partnership um where we're parents and school feel like we're working together to accomplish the same goal um so really a couple big things have defined this work for us this year one was we really worked with the teachers to get back to making sure that every classroom was consistent in what we're communicating home and a big part of that is making sure that through the teacher parents understand what's being covered in the classroom and ideally communicating ways that that learning can be supported at home and that's done through regular newsletters uh parent teacher conferences things like that so we've been having a lot of those conversations in the building the other thing that we did that we haven't touched since covid was we updated our homework expectations to ensure that those were consistent in every classroom we in years past would always hear complaints from parents who had twins where you know why is it that one of my kid has homework for an hour and the other one doesn't have any homework tonight um so we've been working really hard to make sure that why do we assign homework what does that look like what are we expecting like we don't want parents to do homework for kids it's okay if they're struggling it shouldn't be way over their head if it's over their head please send it back and just let us know they're not going to get penalized for not doing it because they struggled with it making sure that those expectations were consistent across the building and then the last one was um we we had some bigger plans for this than actually we were able to realize this year but the new section on the report card and the the fact that we unroll we developed that across the elementary complex together with all the teachers and rolled that out in the report card this year was was a huge accomplishment and specifically what I'm referring to in that part of the report card I think Mrs White has it in her presentation actually is the expectations around things like organization um developing friendships so that we can start to get one of the things we realize is one of our biggest struggles is when teachers and parents have different expectations for the outcomes we're hoping for with kids so we think that by communicating that putting that down on paper spelling it out being clear what it looks like what's the difference between our expectations in grade one to grade five that we can start to find some common ground and work together towards teaching our kids those skills collaboratively um what I had hoped for this year that we weren't able to get to was have parent sessions where we were really able to like would be able to unpack that um and talk about that deeper really this year has just been about getting it out um getting into the hands of people communicating it um so that's that's what this year has been about and then so moving forward for our draft um it's it's such a tricky situation because I'm not going to be here next year and I do have some plans I've been talking to Mrs lions about connecting with the incoming principle about laying out a draft the recommendation of the committee is that the goals in a broad sense continue into next year with some adjustments to the action steps um and just to give you flavor some of those things that we're working on the survey is currently out so we're collecting information from parents students and staff right now um you know really all of the curriculum work and that whole goal needs to continue the progress monitoring and intervention needs to continue we wrote that originally with the understanding that that was going to take a couple years to really really nail that down um the new section of the report card is something that we talked a lot about on the committee um is hopefully being a starting point for work with families um increasing opportunities for parents and families to connect and kids to connect we've heard this loud and clear from families we didn't do as much as I would have hoped to um but we have a lot of kids that just go home after school they're not doing much um and then we have a lot of families who are struggling to meet other families and make connections and they've been asking for us to continue to consider doing more things like the hbb big blast I think families really appreciate being able to come out and meet but doing like smaller events not necessarily needing to be that big um so that's something that we've talked a lot about um and then the other thing that we've had a lot of conversation about and I heard um sounds like the middle school as well is just continuing to figure out how we adjust our efforts to communicate we have about a 50% response rate in what is being read but that's a significant decline for us at the elementary we are definitely struggling to figure out exactly how to communicate and stay current with the way um parents and families are engaging and looking to to uh get information we we've had more than we've had in the past in our school of parents you know saying that they didn't know about something um or they missed something and just trying to figure out are we like overc communicating or underc communicating so we're anticipating you know having some good data from our survey that comes back soon so that's um overview of the goal and the plan moving forward so thank you anyone have any comments or questions Jess I don't know if your presence will be requested before your contract is up so I just want to take the opportunity while you're here to thank you for your years of service in Middleboro and wish you the best of luck in Plymouth and I hope that uh you have success professionally as well as that you get the the personal um time that you're looking for as well so thank you thank you for your your time spent with us thank you I'd like to reiterate that we uh we hate to see you go but we wish you nothing but the best yeah thank you I mixed emotions about it for sure so I appreciate that all right next up thank you principle Thompson with that we will move to um the Mary K good Elementary School we'll hear from Principal Lisa white um who I know brought with her slides regarding the Elementary report card updates that Mr Thompson was referencing at the end of her presentation as well so welcome principal white good evening thank you everyone um this is is actually my favorite presentation if you have one this would be it I love to talk about all the great things that uh we did this year and looking kind of forward to where we're going thank you so much to our school school council members um you know they give their time and their effort to making our schools better um so thank you all so much for your time so in our goal one this year um we were it was to commit to academic Excellence to the implementation of universally designed instruction practice that provide rigorous and engaging learning experience for all students with multiple entry points while narrowing the achievement Gap that is a lot so we divided buckets we divided a curriculum bucket an instruction bucket and an assessment bucket within that goal so again under curriculum we support all staff having high expectations and student engagement for all students under our instruction bucket collaborate with support teams and Specialists to improve instructional practices under assessment through data analysis evaluate student performance and develop appropriate interventions and monitoring of academic progress so how did we do with that this year so what was completed was implementation of youly this has been a huge amazing I I don't have all the adjectives to describe um addition to what we are doing with our early literacy um this program moving from our balance literacy to our structured literacy with grades one and two of the focus in phonics um our our teachers at mkg are raving about it we are actually um you know when something's working and it's good um the fourth and fifth grade teachers did the what do you have that I don't um you know we need phonics so we've actually taken it and and stretched it um to include some lessons um for four and five so it's having we're we're already seeing and reaping the rewards from from implementation of this program um increasing writing across the curriculum this year we used um if you're familiar with we have scholastic news we have ReadWorks and our students were writing every day um which was wonderful um and with seeing with having you know these these online programs are able or read Works being something we can draw from um we're going to be taking that and taking the next step with empowering writers which will be on my later slide but it'll allow us to have a more structured um approach to writing so it we can see it across all grade levels and and use the same vocabulary for for that moving from grade level to grade level the implementation of envisions 2.4 so this was the year of the roll out of that it was the upgrade of of what we already had so with that the teachers are providing feedback to our curriculum office about alignment about you know curriculum alignment about our our mapping and what that looks like with this new program so we're looking forward to making some adjustments in that moving forward our trajectories with our scope and sequences um in our curriculum especially in the area of ela our teachers have been masterful with working together not only as an mkg team but as a complex team I I know um Mr Thompson had mentioned that that since I've been at the complex I will say this is the most collegial I've had you put the brains in the room and it's impressive it it truly is and the conversations that come from it so this work is their work this work is the teachers work that they're going to now take and and be ready to move with next year so along with the curriculum team it's been it's been a wonderful Edition professional development our teachers have received professional development throughout the year in the area of math literacy early literacy and writing those will also continue next year um our grade level coaching um so we found a sweet spot so coaching's been around um for a few years now and we we we every year it was a different model every year we were trying to find the what works in coaching I think we figured it out this year uh we had what was called Focus weeks so we have our special education coach our literacy coach and our math coach their academic coach coaches but they kind of have a little bit of a specialty so what we did is we looked at the grade levels and what the need was so and the curriculum and how the curriculum lines up so this year grades one in four lined up and three and five um excuse me two and five we had grade three as a standalone because we had new some newer staff on on that team and we needed to make sure that they were getting a little bit more for professional um development and for time with the coaches so what we did was the coaches had these Focus weeks so it's the grade one 14 week um you could sign up for a coaching session there was a menu of things that you could sign up for with the coaches but also you can expect if you're a grade one or four teacher and you had a focus week you can expect a coach to be visiting you um so that was a great opportunity for coaches to see the in the moment with our students and what they were doing um our teachers really really liked it they L this model the coach Coes really like the model because they didn't feel it was whack-a-mole trying to get to everybody and not really being able to get to everybody so this was a great o they really really enjoyed this this Focus this year and how how we did this on the as Mr Thompson did say the updating of learning behaviors on the report card really looking at what are the expectations of our students at each grade level and and in that what is a friend and what does it look like and that's going to we took that piece and again you're going to see it on a later slide how we took the learner behaviors and we created through our PBIS team um a matrix um the learner behaviors are wonderful in the report card for families to look at but what does it mean when you're in first grade what does that language look like in first grade so that's what we did with our Matrix which I will talk about in a little bit goal two provide an equitable environment that is inspires and empowers all students to increase their academic success so our mtss um this is we changed our building wide expectations for mtss we changed um and and thanks to Mr Dyer our AP he this he's finishing up his first year and I will say he's done a wonderful job and he's been a wonderful addition to Mary K good he's speared this kind of taken this on and he's done a great job with aligning mtss so it's teachers there's no surprises when you get to mtss what does it look like what data are we bringing what data are we looking at how are we circling back to be able to take our students and really drill down to what the need is um you know sometimes it looks like a particular need when you when you look at the data it's actually something else our child study team um we have a progress monitoring system uh we look at students um all needs all areas it could be a student that's struggling on the bus um you know we may not have any academic needs but it could be a a struggling bus situation so how do we manage that in our child study team uh for tier two and tier three instruction we had Lexia again youly and we're continuing to update this um next year this is something that we're definitely going to be rolling over with our Lexia our Alexia is going to be this year it was a little bit more targeted next year we're rolling it out to all students and we're going it it aligns nicely with youly as well and there's a lot of offline components um I know you know families get concerned with how much time screen time students have but Lexia has a great offline component as well for tiered intervention for our classroom teachers data reviews we do data reviews for not we look at the grade level so we look at the student individual student and we also look at curriculum through data because we need to make sure that our curriculum is hitting the marks at all at all points so we look at that at the the beginning of the year and the and the middle of the year as well I look at that over the summer by the time we get the end of the data it's very hard to schedule those meetings so we kind of Kick the year off with looking back to then move forward for the for the next coming school year uh professional learning for our teachers again in the areas of math writing early literacy and aligning our curriculum which has been a wonderful a wonderful Edition this year our attendance uh we're looking at that our school adjustment counselor our school psychologist and our a assistant principal are reviewing our attendance monthly and attendance letters are going home families are getting calls that you know children need to be in school to learn um we know kids get sick and and we understand that but really looking at you know having students in school goal number three to ensure a safe and secure environment for all students and staff and visitors at mkg a safe School environment addresses the emotional and physical safety of our students and staff by using a comprehensive approach that engages School staff District staff students families and the community so our teachers receive professional learning um and safety training we have comma Choice as as um comes in and does lessons with our our teachers and our students next year we'll have comma choice but we are going to be moving towards a um train the trainer model with our teachers um we still have our character strong and that continues to be ongoing which is our word of the month and and making sure that our students are uh building those character traits that we want them to build our grade level Town meetings um those are going to continue um we have uh we're going to focus our first as matter of fact our first town meeting we always go over um you know the bus rules and the rules of the school and this year it'll be nice to have our Matrix that's what we will kick off our town meeting with is our M grade level Matrix for each grade level because it looks different to be a first grader than it does to be a fifth grader um our bu bullying prevention we did have a presentation for Mark um from Mark this year in the fall we look to continue that again as well next fall um our PBIS which is our positive behavioral intervention supports that's our creation of our Matrix they we have a we have a positive office referrals every day we have our staff Spotlight our family support is ongoing um I we have a great PTA we're always looking for more members um our our PTA is is crucial in what we do but I will say we are very lucky for the parents that we have at maray good and we continue to want and look forward to opportunities to continue to support um that engagement with them we're giving our Universal screener twice a year that helps us with our response to intervention our rti in the social emotional area our school adjustment counselor and our school psychologist use that screener to then develop responses to intervention in the social emotional area so we're not only looking at the academic response to intervention but also um the social emotional needs of our students as well our emergency planning um we have just uh through desie we are updating our um medical and behavioral response plans which are just about complete and will be submitted um we have a monthly Bert meeting which is our building Emergency Response Team um we actually meet also if we do have an if we have a fire drill we meet to discuss how did it go if we have a medical emergency we will meet how did it go how can we change it what did we do what what can be updated so we do that after every time we have an emergency um our safety our general safety we're always monitoring doors we're always you know doing those checks making sure that we have um safety first and foremost for our students at all times while they're in school we are working with restorative practices um which is alternatives to suspensions we're looking at educ educating children rather than having everything be punitive um that's our goal you know when we when we have a punishment for a child what's being learned our our goal as a school is to make children better and by doing that we need to teach them ways to be better in those areas that they're struggling in um welcoming a welcoming environment for All Families which is our our Common Ground our committee has slowly started um which is getting all of our families students and staff to feel a sense of of belonging in our school so what's coming okay so our draft our goals will remain the same because it's important you know it's not a one and done goals are not one the done check the box move on goals take time um we do we're keeping the main goal but what's coming underneath the goals will be changing so under goal one we're adding empowering writers We are continuing to align our curriculum we're adding our curriculum department has added an instructional framework which our teachers will be working with so that's um kind of helping our teachers to frame the learning that goes on in each of our classrooms we're moving to structural structured literacy which is our science of reading I um admin just attended a professional development on Friday which was wonderful we were given that opportunity so it's already kind of you know getting planting the seed as we're moving forward into the science of reading uh goal two uh Lexia for all students in grades one to five that's very valuable data for us to be looking at with grouping our students with what they need in the area of literacy our professional learning our coaches uh were tasked I I asked them to go out and field what do What do teachers want in in professional development you know yes we have to do certain things but what are they looking for so these are some things that the teachers had come up with that we've already created a plan for for next year during our PLC and our PLC time and our town meeting time which is writing adapting um for multilanguage students how to address learning gaps tiered interventions these are just a few topics of that the teachers have come up with in goal three again we will have common Choice next year but our staff will be getting professional development because the following year the staff themselves will be leading that work um again our PBI M Matrix I'm very excited about that um grades for and five we started uh we planted the seed this year with our um free seat Friday Council and we're going to be expanding that to officially making a grade four and a grade five student council we've again we're adding our behavioral medical and behavioral response plans to our safety portion of our plan and continuing our work with the Common Ground committee I'm good anyone have any questions or comments lot of great stuff um question I have that comes from um feedback from from parents and that's around um differences between the two elementary schools um are we still on different curriculums within those two schools or it's all line now so it's always been aligned um but we're really tightening that up um we're really looking at the trajectories and the scope and sequences we you know teachers always have autonomy with certain certain aspects but you know we want it that if you know we're teaching cause and effect we're all teaching cause and effect roughly around the same time because common assessments are going to drive that work so we can look at data not only at mkg but across the complex as well because it is so important to be able to know what our need is doing and what our kids are doing to make sure that we are aligned with our Common Assessment um so yes the curriculum you know we all we have common curriculum our state standards are our common curriculum sure and I guess what I'm saying is like the reading curriculum is it are you using the same curriculum yes you for instance like youly I can give you know youly yes we're all using youly yep and the other question I have is around um same question in in the social venue I I another piece that I've heard is that a desire that we find ways for the two the populations of the two schools to have more opportunity to mix one with one another so I'm working on that as we speak so we because we're Al so because our town meetings um we are aligning Town meetings to be the same time and the same grades next year in both schools so I went in and counted seats in the auditorium to see if we could fit so we can fit all of mkg's fifth grade and all of hbbs fifth grade so there will be opportunities now during that time to come together so at Town meetings so we may have separate Town meetings at times but we will have an opportunity to have a complex um town meeting so I think that that's going to be a great opportunity that you know I will be chatting with the new principal at hbb about that being able to have that opportunity next year and maybe combining for some of these social you saying the engagement with the parents and after school and all of that that might be another well even this year we you know we have our clubs we each have after school clubs and this happened this year that um there was a club it they didn't have enough students at hbb and we took some on our end that's the first time we've done that so we do it for rotary raise When We Do rotary raise we mix kids but so um but it's moving forward I think that that's something we could figure out to be able to give students the opportunity to get to know our friends next door great thank you thank you anyone else have any other comments questions to build on that quickly I think especially when you hit the fifth grade level as you look at those students moving into Middle School some kind of you know fifth grade socials or those kinds of things would be really interesting to try to help create that culture before they matriculate up so yeah we we work with ptas with that and it's something that I know moving forward that we are going to meet I know I want to meet with both ptas together and say how can we how does that look what does that look like no that's wonderful thank you anything else uh Miss White just if you have need a hand with a any grade level Town meetings let me know I'd be more than happy to help you are more than you're all more than welcome to come you you have to see it it's an there it's my it's amazing we've been doing it now since I got here and it is a good it's fun it's a good time beautiful thank you very much and last do you want me to go over the report card oh you're wel last but certainly not least we'll be visiting the memorial Early Childhood Center through principal Jeremy goil who's going to be talking to us about Improvement at the prek andk level welcome Mr goil thank you good evening had a we had a great event one of my favorite events tonight we had our kindergarten information night it was nice to see an auditorium packed with anxious excited uh f kindergarten parents and and there were some other parents that were sprinkled in who have had some children that have gone through our school so they were all reassuring them no you're going to be good you're gonna be good it's okay and I think about my I have twins that are 20 years old and my son is is a 17 years old and I shared with the folks tonight I remember that feeling that pit in your stomach when you send the kid off to you know to kindergarten for the first time and um you know I just tried our best to reassure them that we're going to love their kids we're going to take care of them we're going to do our best to keep them safe but also so that we're humans and we're going to make mistakes and we you know want to form a collaborative relationship with with families and and please call the school if you have questions or concerns and don't jump on Facebook first um if you have anything you want to share with us then let us know um so that was a wonderful event um I have kind of like a script here I'm just going to sort of read but in in looking at our school Improvement plan this year our school council um believes that we should continue with the goals that we have in place um there will be some some adjustments to our some of the action steps um we are adding Lexia next year um in our building in K as an example um excuse me we will continue to focus on literacy instruction is our first goal math instruction is our second goal and social emotional learning and belonging within our school um for next year I want to highlight some of the things that we implemented this year or worked on this year we also implemented youly it was quite a bit of a challenge um it's new phonic program um brand new to us and it was really exciting to see the struggles and the challenges that we face but the resiliency and the determination of our staff um we use this as an opportunity to engage in learning walks some teachers felt a little more comfortable with it and more welcoming and having other teachers come into your classrooms it was pretty unnerving for a lot of teachers because they weren't comfortable with this new program we actually went and visited a couple different schools a couple different districts that are that are like one year ahead of where we are with youly and it was really reassuring to hear their teachers and their Administration say we had the exact same apprehensions the exact same questions the exact same anxieties that you guys are experiencing right now and we really see the success that that it's it's um it's shown our teachers have bought into it and and we are seeing success with that with that program which has been really good we look forward to um being more comfortable with it next year and and further growth growth with it excuse me um we used a dyslexia screener called early bird one of the big steps that we took this year was last year was our first year with it and we didn't really do much with the data that we got that we received this year we um actually had data meetings around the early bird information that we got which was really helpful in determining our um intervention but not only our intervention groups for our struggling readers but also in our enrichment activities our enrichment um groups we had some kids that were kind of higher-end Learners and and readers and we were able to to challenge them which I I've always enjoyed doing in regard to our positive behavior intervention and supports we created um what was pretty funny some expected and unexpected videos where we had some student models demonstrating what expected behaviors look like in the cafeteria in the hallways at recess um on the bus and then they had me demonstrating some unexpected behaviors and the kids just got a big kick out of it and it was funny because I've had parents come up to me and say were you really acting like is that how you're supposed to act and I was like no it was I was acting it was and I tell the kids so I learned from my mistakes and and I don't do that stuff anymore so we were able to implement those as well as posters um with some really basic um be safe be kind be ready is sort of our our motto um and the posters are all around the um the the uh building as well we engaged in some math PD this year which was really really great um with some of our our curriculum coordinator folks and identified sort of shared philosophy and shared language which was just it was very engaging I feel like we've been sort of stuck in the literacy PD for the last few years and it was really really refreshing to have some great um math PD where we you know talked about manipulatives and how to use them and how to implement them into our instruction so that was that's been wonderful we're look to excuse me we're looking to continue that next year um and again I talked about um learning walks among our teachers we also had our um educational support Personnel do a a classroom swap at one day this year um with the hope that so I have we have a an ESP that's pretty much attached to a classroom teacher in kindergarten um and they're there with them every day and what we did was my teaching style may be a little bit different than Mrs White's teaching style so I would take we took my ESP or the ESP that works mostly in my classroom and went and spent the day with Mrs White in her classroom and her ESP spent the day with with with me um so we got some really good feedback around how we can make that a little bit more effective so we're looking at implementing that again next year um and then just the final piece our our first school Improvement plan goal um it's really focused on literacy instruction and it ties nicely to the district's goals of f the first and second of the district schools and the same with our math our second uh School Improvement goal is related to math and it's also connected to the district's first and second um strategic goals and then our third um School Improvement goal is really tied to the district's third and fourth and involve really a focus on inclusion and belonging so I'm happy to answer any questions you have anyone have any comments questions I think that you should videotape those uh Behavior behavioral uh acting challenges and send them out for everyone's enjoyment um but uh it's great to hear the movement into the the math PD yeah in the the mech um I think it's uh yeah you know an important step in uh expanding that uh the education model and and making sure that uh I know the focus on literally literacy is really important but we don't want to forget about the math as we go along and and lose those skills and and keep those those skills present for everyone and social sciences as well you know looking at how we embed those into literacy instruction math instruction our daily instruction and also remembering that our our instructional Frameworks that Mrs White um talked a little bit about it looks different at K and basically it's a structure of the daily schedule and you know our curriculum team has been very supportive of not saying you have to have a you know 90 minutes of ela instruction and 90 minutes of math instruction understanding that these are five and six year old kids that need you know 90 minutes of play and they need you know Transitions and they need bathroom breaks and they need you know so just they've been our our folks have been really understanding and um supportive of that and so that's been a really positive thing as well wonderful any other comments questions thank you very much thanks guys have a good night thank you Mr goil the next item on my report is a financial update this evening um I've invited Michael Peron to come and talk with the group um give a brief update this evening I will plan to bring a financial update monthly now we'll call at the second meeting of the month um until the chair or anyone else recommends that we have this more frequently so with that I'll turn it over to director of business and finance Michael Peron welcome thank you good evening so I have a brief um slide deck for you on a budget update um so first want to we'll talk about uh fiscal 24 close out the fiscal 25 startup uh little um update on special projects and then um very briefly on 26 it's never too early to start but uh we're far off but we'll start talking about that so on the fiscal 24 um close out um we are currently uh obviously entering any purchase orders um for known and anticipated expenses from uh the different departments um these are budgeted items if they still need um uh supplies or anything like that where we are um putting those through uh yearend funds are available um and this is due to uh a freeze and expenditures uh earlier in the year I can't take any credit for that um that was done before I got here but it did allow us to project that we're going to have a positive balance at the end of the year uh I am struggling a little bit with where we're going to actually end up uh because I'm just started um but it is um positive and we are going to be able to uh what we're doing is looking at uh getting some purchase a ready should we have some extra funds so that it would help start um us off on a good uh foot for fiscal 25 um and hopefully I'll be presenting next year uh at this time with the same information that we have a positive balance at the end of the year um moving to 25 uh so we're you know you're doing two things at once you're ending 24 starting 25 so we have a number of purchase orders that have to be entered uh and we'll be doing that over the summer and we will begin begin loading the 25 budget uh that was uh just voted at the uh April 7th town meeting um one of the things we I want to work on is ensuring that we put the salaries and the expenditures all in uh the correct accounts when we built the budget or when the budget was built I was not here there's a template it's not in the system that we use so we do have to take the number and the revenue that was given at the town meeting and then enter it into the system uh and just make sure that it's in the correct um accounts because then uh it'll it'll be easier for me to report out to you and project next year's balance um the actual 20 five uh budget is not in terms of Revenue isn't really even finished yet even though we are done with the budget in the town um the Chapter 70 is still I think they we're talking about yesterday and today uh and there's probably going to be hopefully be an increase there um and that could potentially uh be an increase to Middle Bor of about 250 to 300,000 so we'll keep an eye on that and that the 25 I wanted to talk to you a little about some special projects that we're working on uh the Middle School Chiller we had the walkth through today um and uh we think we're complete with that with the vendor oh I'm sorry um so the um we could avoid the um going out for the formal bid it will be bid based on the state contract we also learned that we might be able to uh use another Avenue which still all comply with 30b requirements and uh procurement so that will save some time uh you still get very good pricing um and so this project um has a lead time uh for the delivery of the unit of 28 32 weeks I know that's long but there are issues with now we did find that one of the vendors uh May if they have them um in stock which is rare but if they do it would be a week or two delivery and they could have it done by June so we're keeping our fingers crossed we're going to find out over the next week or two um that would if not then it would be completed um over the winter break uh and just so you know that this was uh a project in the capital um budget in last Spring's town meeting in 23 but it was for obviously this fiscal year uh continuing on with I'll get better at that uh special projects update um on the technology side switches and access um the switches and access points have been installed at the elementary complex uh there is addition configuration and relocation to be completed this summer um and while that is taking place the network will be down unfortunately but I don't believe it's going to be a long period of time so the project right now as it stands is about 70% done so we're we're in good shape um and again this project was also funded at the same um town meeting in 23 and the capital warrant uh to be done and U FY 24 the last two are um uh as a result of security audit um improvements and recommendations so we have a we're looking at security cameras and uh Wi-Fi connectivity at the uh High School lastly and as I said it was just going to be brief is the fiscal 26 um we uh are going to uh well one of the projects I want to work on uh especially because I'm new um is take the template that was left for me for what was the 25 budget and start building out uh the salaries for the 26 budget so we take all the contractual um obligations that you you worked on with your unions uh and move all the employees in whatever um field they're in teacher esps whatever it may be move them along the new step and Lane on the salary schedule and build out uh as early as possible the 26 budget um that as you know the salaries is the biggest part it's probably 70 75% of the budget so we'll have that done um and lastly we were contacted by or the superintendent was by uh the finance committee uh to start um discussions on future budgets not just 26 but even a few years further and that will take place in July uh and then we'll see where it goes from there did it again um and so that concludes um my budget update uh I know it covered three fiscal years in about five minutes but uh it's a start I'll take any questions if you have anything on the close out or yes um I know the town's accounting system is finally upgrading where does that um stand in terms of impact on our our District budget and our district accounting process so I probably should have mentioned that it um the trans the transition to munus is going to officially take place right now I think is in March um so we're going to go as status quo into our the system that we're using but we are working with them on updating the uh chart of accounts and and migrating over and so it it's kind of looking at what we use and what they use and they're going to have a crosswalk so that will help us and we're in the process of doing that uh so that's going to take a little bit of time but um I I think it's going to be fine okay I really do but with that transition not being scheduled until March the majority of the planning for the next budget is going to be similar to what we've already done and preparing all of that content because it'll be awful hard to get everything into a new system if it only goes up in March if the town meetings in uh April yeah that could be a a little bit tricky but I think the way they're building it out in the in the crosswalk they're going to have our current okay account next to the new account and in March from what I gather is when they do the transition in March they're going to take everything we've spent those first nine months and they're going to bring it right over okay and um so but the Budget Building you're right we'll build it the way we do now uh and you may see it in two with with two account numbers okay hopefully it'll make it easier the next time around it it will it it'll it'll can't be any harder than it is now right yeah yeah I I think the new system is going to give us a lot more flexibility and it's way more robust than what we have right now great does anyone else have any other questions all right thank you very much you thank you Mr Peron the final um item on my report this evening is just a brief update on the tiered Focus monitoring process uh this year the district had uh tiered Focus monitoring which is ultimately an audit process conducted by DEC and it looks this process takes a close-up look at our special education practices civil rights practices and our English language learner uh practices elll you'll hear me say elll that's what I'm talking about um so I'll begin with the special education and and civil rights process because it's slightly different this process actually began in the 223 school year with a self assessment that's where the department really takes a hard look internally at our practices our procedures our manuals um and make some determinations about are we compliant with what the law is asking us to do is that in practicality what's happening in in our district um so the ese kind of reviews that self- assessment and then in year or two conducts what's called an on-site visit that happened during the 23 24 school year um it began with an orientation with the ESC in OCT October we had a press releasee that went out in February um there was orientation with our CAC our special education parent advisory Council in March and early April DEC Representatives came to our district to do an on-site record review which includes them going into student files and really taking a look at every single piece of paper in a file to say did we comply with timelines and other other matters of compliance quite honestly you know did we invite relevant members of team um did we get excusals from parents if if the a certain member couldn't attend among other things um they then conducted virtual interviews with a cross-section of Staff also in early April and then there was an exit um interview uh where a group of us participated actually in that process to kind of hear the early feedback um deese has shared that they're currently drafting our report and the way this works is that we are anticipating a draft report um honor before for June 5th and once that draft has been received I'm sorry I didn't hear that date June 5th that's the draft report y so once we have the draft report the district actually has a period of time it's about 20 days to respond you know to say yeah we understand or did you have this piece of information that you considered what clarification I mean it's a bit of a back and forth process not a lot but I mean there is an opportunity to be heard before a final report is released so if we receive that report on our about June 5th and then you figure there's 20 days to respond and then time to to produce a final report I'm not anticipating that report probably till the end of June if I you know I mean if if everything goes tightly my plan is to have director Healey come back um along with director avable and also director uh Dr Martis to come back and report to the committee a thorough report on the findings but I wanted to at least tell you where we were where we were in the kind of process that's just for and then do what comes in from these different Focus do they then get wrapped into the school Improvement plans or is that oh great question so it's so well first you begin with what are the areas of one are there any areas of finding um and then two if there are there's there there's a separate process for corrective action so if the state comes in and has a concern about something they expect and ask us to produce evidence of corrective action so depending on what the issue is you may see it in our in our strategic plan you may see it in a school Improvement plan or you may not it really depends on how nuanced the issue is because the areas that the state looks at can range from very very broad to how we how we have our families participate to very very specific with meeting timelines on the turnaround of an IEP for an example so it kind of depends on what it is before we know thank you but uh but certainly we do one way or the other you have to address deficiencies so it's not a process that allows you to say oh thanks so much we're going to continue to you know do whatever we want um so that's just for civil rights and special education the sister process if you will for elll is different um which is headed up by Dr Martis who is our director of curriculum and instruction they conducted what's called a desk review which is slightly different than what still called tier Focus monitoring TFM but a slightly different process which only spanned this school year the 242 uh I'm sorry 23 24 school year um that included a review of Records very similar where they're looking at our Student Records um they did an onsite visit that was virtual so I have I have have a trouble with calling that on-site um but they did virtually appear to look at you know facility and discussion about elll Services they did review our access testing um as well as our parent and family communication efforts um and they also conducted virtual interviews with staff so this process really began in Earnest um in January of 2024 or at least on their end we had been preparing materials earlier I think it began in October of this school year but in January 2024 they reviewed records in May of 2024 that was when the it was it was the 1 of May had their interviews and onsite visit um we do have this draft report and we're in that review period um in the draft report there are only two areas of of concern and that's being you know Dr Martis in the state as we speak I am anticipating this final report in the weeks to come my from an organizational standpoint it'd be great to have both Dr Dr marus director H and director AV all come but if it's going to be a big gap I will not wait I just want to you know bring this information to the committee as early as possible I think it's healthy to review this very similar if is an area of finding there is an expectation of corrective F uh corrective action um I will S I will say in all three areas in Special Education civil rights and English language Learners um I do think all three tenants are prominently placed in our strategic plan and school Improvement plans that you heard at length tonight are really all anchored to that strategy so in some measure I think it's safe to say they will be connected but as to what particular issue you have to take a closer more specific look um TFM will come back in three years for elll with special education and civil rights they keep changing the cycle and they're getting closer to quite honestly having process every year which I understand I think their I think their initial thought was if they come more often it's less onerous on the district I don't find that to be accurate but that's okay it's a process that they are addressing every year and I think it's a healthy practice to look at what we're doing and ask the question are we compliant is this accessible process for our students and families so that's my update on teer Focus monitoring I'll answer any questions you might have that's very helpful thank you sure anyone have any comments or questions no all right um next agenda item is school committee subcommittee meetings um I have a list I'll read them out and uh I'll email it to everyone so we all understand where we are um anyone wants to switch want committees or anything like that just let me know you know pretty uh can you email them to us after too so that write yeah no I I just have a list here I I wanted to email after I we spoke because I didn't want to get in trouble with open meeting law and all that stuff um so negotiation subcommittee is going to be um Zeke and Jess uh the budget subcommittee will be Zeke and Sue um I'm also going to ask you if you're available to attend the fincon meeting with myself superintendent Mike Peron in July um facilities will be uh Chris and myself sick bank will be Chris and myself um I kind of combined this one and I I'll explain that uh briefly the policy manual on the school committee handbook I think it's pretty aligned so we might as well have those two together and that's I'm going to put three people on that one so that'll be Jess Zeke and Sue uh the superintendent evaluation is going to be Jess Sue and myself Community engagement will be Sue and myself Sue engagement will also be Sue and myself I figure that might as well be the same thing quality time together yeah um I don't know if we're on policy I think we got it to technology will be Marcy and Chris and Athletics will be uh Chris and myself um I was think and again completely open to whatever you guys want to do but uh my thought was the first person I named will be chair of those committees the subcommittees um and the chair does reserve the right to be a member of any of those committees as well any comments questions of course um can we talk a little bit about expectations I think the subcommittee should meet and come up with their expectations and what they think they they should cover great can you give us a timeline on when you would like that report to come back from the subcommittees how about the first meeting of of next month now how about the first meeting in July give you a whole month okay it's summer uh also another question if there is any information that is available from when the subcommittees were from before from PRI yep absolutely that would be helpful um I think that's it all right anyone else have any other comments questions I I against expectations so um would you want back from the subcommittees this is what we think we should focus on um in this sub subcommittee when we report back what kind of report back would you like I would leave that up to the subcommittee I have a lot of faith in you guys um yeah just kind of what you from your prior like whatever material we have from prior committees what you think we should focus on moving forward and how we expect to uh achieve those priorities or goals okay thank you I'd like to I don't want to be honorous but I I don't want it to be lacking either so maybe casual is the right word but uh you know yeah and I given in terms of the owner's part um I also wonder when we come back together whether all of the subcommittees have the same level of priority it when we're looking at the urgency of work so I think you just named my name five times um so uh there may be some that are are it's more important that get going now and this is something we really need to work on um and this one might wait until January you know something yeah I I mean there are at least in my opinion and I'm certainly open to any any other thoughts but um like the student engagement and Community engagement we have all year to and we have opportunities to engage with the students and the communities but there aren't as many say and I forgive me if I describe this in a ambiguous manner um we may not have the same priorities as say the negotiations or the budget subcommittee you know the budget is a a budget has a a pretty strict timeline in terms of like when we start the process and a defined role whereas Community engagement so I maybe I'm assuming that student engagement was more that as a school committee we're looking at the way that the school system is engaging with students is it is that what it is intended or is it more how is the school committee engaging or both I think we can do both okay all right so one of the things that I think we can do also is you know learn from our peers at other towns and things like that and you know do some um digging into what we can you know does masc have some resources on on common subcommittees and expectations and um you know I think starting off with just a general blurb of what are the responsibilities of each subcommittee would be plenty for July and then we can build on those once once each subcommittee is um has that what are our responsibilities established it'll be a lot easier to prioritize and and set importances so I think just kind of you know if we were to update our handbook with all the subcommittees and what the subcommittees are responsible for hey each subcommittee come up with what you're responsible for is our first task so and I think jumping off of that um you know these committees are largely except for when there are some expectations involved I think there it's largely what you make of it and what we can bring to the table through these subcommittees to to make a a cohesive um committee as a whole um so in terms of like defined roles I think I totally agree with you Jess like in the handbook we should have these are the Committees that can be created and what their functions are definitely start with that but I also I also o think that there should be before we jump into starting these committees or these subcommittees excuse me uh that we should have a priority okay like which one are we going to work on first because some of us are in multiple ones so you know yep well I mean knowing we basically know when the budget subcommittee starts so what does that mean for those of us on the policy Committee in terms of you know what could we start on before the budg committee really kicks into high gear and you can talk with the superintendent about when would negotiations be initiating and things like that so I think once we get facilities should meet before then because what facilities can bring to the table will implicate what happens with the budget so yep so I think start with the blur we'll go from there yeah and one of the things too and I don't know if it would be in policy or school committee or if it should just be the committee as a whole is I'd like to see a calendar like a rough calendar of when we should be addressing things so we understand what's coming up and when we can prioritize things and I think that may be something that those of us who are on new subcommittees or have not done that process we'll we'll work together on and and figure it out because there's definitely uh a need to create that kind of General are we going to do this in the first quarter second quarter kind of General timelines but also um you know when are which committees have specific deadlines that we have to be cognizant of I think would be good yep yeah I mean the general hope is that we're all pulling in the same direction yep and uh I think uh I think if we keep that in mind we can move forward and you know and yeah we can certainly you know prioritize negotiations and budgets are big policy and school committee I think is Big the superintendent evaluation committee is you know we have a certain timeline you know so that's specified um and we should make that information available to all of us so we understand those things whereas you know maybe the athletic committee that Chris and I are on maybe we meet quarterly and just check in with Ryan and see how things are going if there's a need or a response um I'd rather be proactive than reactive on some things yeah you know I I find that seems to work better in the municipal government doesn't happen nearly enough but it when it does it works well so I but again we're I'm pretty flexible and I absolutely encourage anybody who has a good idea to run with it um sue you are the chair of the community and student engagement committees so uh one other thing I want to throw on the table it's not really a subcommittee but something that we've talked about and that is being in touch with the you guys have all these initials down well Mas CV I was that right masc oh there you go um and which is the Massachusetts Association of school committees because not everybody understands the acronyms um and doing a self assessment and uh and you had asked me about that before uh and something that but in context of all of this I I will email you and and as I think through what I would really have time to do and the um the conference in November is highly recommended and a great opportunity for us talking about having them come out here and work with us as well right so just by way of review Mr chair um the masc will come out their desire was to come out when all members could attend so I'm just looking or a time slot even if you say like a Tuesday at 6 o'clock or a Wednesday at 3 it doesn't matter to me what time but once we have the time I can build in the calendar to bring them so as soon as you have one or two time slots you would like me to offer or even if it's specific dates I would say I would give them one or two weeks lead time I wouldn't expect them to come out sooner than that but with it heading into summer I imagine their calendars free up a little bit more so something to consider I'll send an email out over the next week or two great asking for dates and we can uh we can work towards that as well any other comments questions I have a question but it's not specific to the school committee uh subcommittees um remind me did we make a determination as to our meeting schedule yeah all right then I would ask that we put that on the list for so June 13th the minutes that I believe we're going to be voting on shortly indicate that we did that second and four we did through the end of through June June but we didn't discuss July or right August or or the rest of the that was my concern so I would ask that on June 13th that we add to the agenda having an official schedule for the summer for the summer for the summer and through to the end of the year summer and school yeah yeah all right just give me one second folks because I thought I just read that because I wasn't positive either which would be the 13th of June so the uh the motion which was unanimous was to maintain the current practice of two meetings per month the second and fourth Thursdays and if it is not necessary to have a second meeting the school committee has the right to call off the meeting and the meetings will be called off for a particular holiday or snow days the school committee meetings will continue to begin at s oh yeah so I I'm sorry I misread that so yeah all right we can I mean I'm perfectly fine with the second and fourth or the first and third doesn't bother me but we'll yeah we'll have that discussion now have that discussion yeah because I'd feel uncomfortable without our other committee members or at least on one of our other committee members with us U making that vote now so all right but as of right now we've got the 13th of June and the 27th of June and I don't think we said anything else from there so right beautiful okay all right so uh the consent agenda I'll take these separately just to make sure that everything's good um I would entertain a motion to approve the fundraiser for the Middleboro High School class of 2026 they going to have popcorn and cotton candy sales so moved second I have a motion and second any comments or questions all in favor I I opposed passes unanimously I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of April 25th 2024 so moved second any comments or questions all in favor I I opposed passes unanimously I would entertain a motion for the approval of the warrants as presented so move second any comments or questions all in favor I I I opposed passes unanimously I would entertain a motion to accept accept the donation to The Middleboro High School from Ohio pile second any comments questions all in favor I opposed passes unanimously I would entertain a motion to adjourn so moved do I have a second second I have a motion to Second any comments questions all in favor I I opposed passes unanimously thank you very much folks enjoy your evening I think we should put it in the